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Abilities
There are three main types of abilities: Activated, Triggered, and Static. Examples of Static abilities include shroud, first strike, and flying. Activated abilities include any abilities that require tapping or some sort of cost. For example, the card Royal Assasin has an activated ability that reads: "Tap: destroy target tapped creature." Triggered abilities require a specific event to happen, like paying upkeep. Big Abilities These are the biggest giganticest (mostly commonest) abilities in Magic. They are used a lot with many different cards. Although some abilities are used more than others, it's still important to understand all the abilities in Magic. Flying Flying is probably one of the most common abilities in the game. This creature can't be blocked except by other flying creatures It says it all. Flying creatures can't be blocked by non-Flying creatures. But there is one exception, creatures with Reach can block Flying creatures without having Flying themselves. Most creatures with Reach are Spiders, Archers or walls. First Strike First Strike is one of the strongest abilities. This creature deals combat damage before creatures without first strike. This means that if you are attacking with a 2/2 first strike creature like Rockslide Elemental, and your opponent has a 5/2 creature like Summit Apes, since your creature has first strike, it deals its damage first. Therefore, the Summit Apes would die and your creature would not, because Summit Apes never got to deal its damage. However, if the blocking creature is a 5/3, then Rockslide Elemental deals its 2 damage, but 2 does not eliminate 3, so the 5/3 does not die. Then the 5/3 deals its damage to Rockslide Elemental, killing it. Also, if both creatures have first strike, then they deal their damage as if neither had first strike. ! Deathtouch Deathtouch is another deadly ability. A creature with deathtouch works like this: Creatures dealt damage by this creature are destroyed. You can divide this creature's combat damage among any of the creatures blocking or blocked by it. This means that if you attack with a 1/3 deathtouch, that means that even if they have an 8/8, the 8/8 dies anyway, because all creatures blocking (or blocked by) a deathtouch creature are destroyed. So with a deathtouch creature, power is usually not important. The great thing about deathtouch is that if two creatures block a creature with deathtouch, they all die if the creature deals at least 1 point of damage to each other creature. Regenerate Regenerate is a life-saving ability for many cards. Regenerate does what it sounds like. If you have a card that would normally be destroyed, you can "regenerate" it and it doesn't die. This is exactly what regenerate does: The next time this creature would be destroyed this turn, it isn't. Instead tap it, remove all damage from it, and remove it from combat. This means next time the creature would be destroyed, you tap it and it doesn't die. If it is combat, you can regenerate it, and the creature is then removed from combat. When you regenerate when attacking, the creature is tapped as if it never entered combat. When you regenerate when blocking, you still must tap it though. Like Unearth, you usually have to tap mana to regenerate. Most regenerate cards need only one mana to regenerate, but some need two or more. Some cards, like Vagrant Plowbeasts, allow you to regenerate other cards besides themselves. Trample Trample is a really good ability. It is quite simple. It basically means that during combat damage, if a creature has trample, any leftover damage tramples past the opposing creature to the player. If this creature would deal enough damage to it's blockers to destroy them, you may have it deal the rest of its damage to defending player or planeswalker. This means that if you're attacking with a 4/4 trample, and your opponent blocks with a 2/2, the 2/2 would die, but the 4/4 would not. However, since the 4/4 is dealing 4 damage to the 2/2's 2 defense, the 4 "tramples" over the 2, and the damage goes to the player. If the creature was attacking a planeswalker, then the damage goes to the planeswalker. Trample only takes effect when your creature is attacking, not blocking. Haste Haste is a simple ability. If you have been around Magic for a while, you will know that creatures have a disability called summoning sickness. This means that they cannot attack or tap on their first turn on the battlefield. For example, cards like Vithian Stinger and Prodigal Pyromancer can't use their ability until the controller's next turn after they come into play. This creature can attack and tap as soon as it comes under your control. This means that creatures with haste don't have summoning sickness. They can attack and tap the instant they come under your control. Lifelink Lifelink is easy to understand. It means that for any amount of damage your creature deals, you gain that much life. Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life. So if you block or attack with a 5/4 creature with lifelink, when damage is resolved, you gain 5 life unless damage is prevented or your creature is removed from play. =Less common Abilities= Devour Devour is an ability in the Alara Block. Although the meaning is always the same, the actual ability can vary. Say I cast a 5/5 creature with devour like Gorger Wurm. Once it resolves and starts to come into play, I can sacrifice any number of creatures. Since Gorger Wurm has Devour 1, and I sacrifice 3 creatures, it comes into play with 3 +1/+1 counters on it. If it has Devour 2, it comes into play with 6 counters. Devour works regardless of what zone the creature comes into play from, for example if Rise from the Grave was cast targeting a creature card with devour, you would still be able to sacrifice creatures to give it counters. Some creatures with devour have abilities with effects based on how many creatures they devoured. Unearth A creature with Unearth enables it to be played from the graveyard. When you play the Unearth ability the creature will gain haste and exile at the end of the turn. Shroud Shroud is an ability that is easy to understand. This creature can't be the target of spells or abilities. That's simple. Cards with shroud cannot be targeted by any player. But spells that do not target specific creatures, such as Glorious Anthem, still affect shrouded creatures. Category:Abilities Category:Keyword Abilities Category:Mechanics